One lap tyre pace crucial - Bottas

Valtteri Bottas says that getting tyres into their operating window over one lap will be challenging, with tyre preservation not being an issue during practice.

Bottas missed some of the first session due to a tyre blanket malfunctioning and ended the day in fifth place.

"I’m positively surprised by the track as it’s more challenging than I expected with quite a few technical sections, especially the final sector and I found it enjoyable to drive," he said.

"The asphalt is quite smooth and combined with the hard compounds we saw little tyre degradation today, but this has corresponding challenges as it makes it harder to get the tyres to work on your opening laps.

"We therefore have work to do to make sure we get the most out of the tyres for qualifying tomorrow but overall a good start for us and this track seems to suit our car pretty well."

Team-mate Felipe Massa was seventh quickest.

"My first impression is that the car seems to be performing well around here and I like the track layout," he said.

"The track surface was very slippery this morning but the track improved a lot over the day and we will see it getting better as the weekend progresses. I’m pretty happy with the cars balance and it’s performing consistently so overall I’m happy with our days running."